With that dilemma in mind, I procrastinated a whole bunch and discovered some really lovely art at:
- http://www.andrewkmar.com/#/sketches/
- http://www.hannahchristenson.com/
- http://portfolios.mica.edu/cirith
I also finally got around to reading the Abominable Charles Christopher (by Karl Kerschl) properly, rather than flipping through and picking out a few pages here and there to focus on. It is a marvelous story that develops into something much bigger that you would think. I wonder if the author had that plan all along, or watched it develop on its own, little by little? You can read it here, if you'e interested, it's definitely worth it: http://abominable.cc/post/44164796353/episode-one
I'm also really excited because Isola, the new story by that same artist is getting more and more talked about. I've seen him work on it at the studio, and I'm constantly amazed at the mystical colors and compositions, including the obvious nod to Myazaki's Mononoke Hime. He may not think this himself, but he really has this incredible talent. He seems to be using the least amount of lines possible to create an image, and every line is just precisely the way it should be in length, bend, and width. Just magical!
On a less positive note, one of the bookstores took my books down from their shelves last week because they hadn't sold any in 2 months. If you ask me, that sounds somewhat unfair, as we had originally agreed on 6, but what do I know about this stuff... maybe books not selling in the first few weeks is telling of what the future will be like for that book? Oh, and I learned a really important lesson about that: they left the store stickers on my books and I had to peel them off. I was successful, but I can't imagine the horror that would've resulted from trying to peel them off of an un-laminated book cover. So, people, if you don't expect to sell-out, laminate your covers!